Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660029-1
Body:
Si Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660029-1
The Washington Post
The Now York Times
The Washington Times
AZ
The Wall Street Journal
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Daily News
USA Today
The Chicago Tribune
2,000 Assemble
At CIA to Honor
Retiring Webster
More than 2,000 CIA employ-
ees gathered outside the agen-
cy's headquarters at Langley
yesterday at a retirement cere-
mony for Director William H.
Webster.
Deputy director Richard J.
Kerr presented him with the Dis-
tinguished Intelligence Medal
and praised him for bringing
"continuity and calmness" to the
CIA during a period of turmoil.
Webster, who was sworn in four
years ago, said the agency's em-
ployees helped him keep the
pledge he had made to work close-
ly with the oversight committees
of Congress and with other U.S.
intelligence agencies "to better
serve our common purpose."
With an era of declining budg-
ets ahead, be said, "there will be
inevitable strain," but at the
same time, "a reputation for bon.
SHORT T4KES
WILLIAM IL WEBSTER
... emphasises seed for honesty
esty and competency becomes all
the more important."
Webster is planning to Leave
the agency sometime this month
to join a law firm in the Washing-
ton area, but no details have been
announced. Senate confirmation
hearings have yet to be sched-
uled for his designated successor,
deputy White House national se-
curity adviser Robert M. Gates.
A former federal judge and FBI
director, Webster succeeded the
late William J. Casey at the CIA in
the midst of congressional and
independent prosecutor investi-
gations of the Iran-contra scandal.
In presenting the medal, Kerr
said Webster showed an "ex-
traoramend "ate to take
great deal of inde-
pendence in presenting intelli-
gence to policymakers."
I,
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/23: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401660029-1